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Comment by hunt | Hacker News Reader

I can see one fan at the top of the cylinder- is only one fan really sufficient? It looks like this would generate a large amount of heat.

I would be quite interested to see the temperatures this gets up to.

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A single 16 core Parallella can run with just passive cooling. It takes next to no cooling to bring both the ARM and Epiphany chips down to near room temperature.

While the 16 Parallella can run with just passive cooling, you still need to ensure proper airflow over the unit.

Units have been known to overheat with just passive cooling, and they even advise that you install a fan with the official case (that they sell on their store/provided to backers), even though there is nowhere to screw a fan in, etc.

Cases and Cooling: http://www.parallella.org/2014/04/30/cases-and-cooling/ (parallella.org) April 30, 2014

The point that a cluster of parallellas is relatively easy to cool is definitely aided by the form factor.

It's a pretty big fan. Also, the cylindrical design certainly helps airflow

The design of it certainly helps- I imagine that the switch will get warm on its own. Attaching boards to that must surely make a lot of heat.

The Zynq generates quite a bit, but the Epiphany very little. I've got a case kit for mine with a 0.4 watt fan, and that fan is total overkill for a single Parallella.

That Netgear dumb switch? We've got 10-20 of those running 24/7 in user office spaces; they're all cool to the touch because they do practically nothing. Jam them into a tight, hidden space and safely forget about them forever.

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